Dan Chenok to take reins at IBM think tank

Dan Chenok has been chosen to become the next leader of the IBM Center for the Business of Government. Chenok confirmed he will start his new role on July 1.

Jonathan Breul is retiring as executive director of the research organization. Chenok has been a senior fellow at the center since 2010, offering his expertise on government technology, acquisition and ways to improve management. He also leads its consulting services for public sector technology strategy and is chairman of the Federal Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board.

Before IBM, Chenok was a senior vice president for civilian operations with Pragmatics, and vice president for business solutions and offerings with SRA International.

Before that, Chenok was the branch chief for information policy and technology at the Office of Management and Budget. He and his staff had oversight of policies regarding electronic government, computer security, privacy, and budgeting for IT. He left the government in 2003.

In 2008, Chenok served on President Barack Obama’s transition team as the government group leader of the Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform Policy Committee and as a member of the OMB Agency Review Team. The team oversaw IT, information, and regulatory transition activities.

Chenok has won numerous honors and awards, including a 2010 Federal 100 award for his work on the presidential transition.

Breul also had a government career before moving to the private sector. He’s a former senior adviser to the deputy director for management at OMB. He was mainly responsible for governmentwide general management policies. More specifically, he helped to develop the President’s Management Agenda and to establish the President’s Management Council. He also worked to integrate performance information with budget process.

He played an important role in instituting significant management-related laws. He was a part of efforts to put the Government Performance and Results Act into operation governmentwide. He also helped to launch the Chief Financial Officers Act.

Breul is an elected Fellow of the National Academy Public Administration, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Graduate Public Policy Institute. On a broader scale, he served for eight years as the U.S. delegate and elected vice chair of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Public Management Committee.

About the Author

Matthew Weigelt is a freelance journalist who writes about acquisition and procurement.